My husband and I adopted our sweet boy, Moose, when he was 2 months old. We were only 18 at the time, and were absolutely clueless as to how to raise an animal, but Moose was patient with us and we all got to learn and grow together. Moose is 7 now, and has grown into the most rambunctious, loving, and playful cat! Two years ago we found Moose was prone to urinary blockages, which is where hard and painful crystals grow in a cat's bladder, and when the cat tries to pee them out, they will irritate the urethra which causes pain and swelling. If this happens enough the urethra gets so swollen that it closes up completely, preventing the cat from being able to pee. This is incredibly deadly, and needs to be treated within hours of the blockage otherwise all the toxins from the blocked urine goes into the cats bloodstreams and slowly poisons them.

This is the third time Moose has been blocked in the past 2 years. After the first time we put him on a (very expensive) prescription kibble, which meant he no longer got his favorite treats (deli meat and rotisserie chicken). The prescription diet has helped immensely, but unfortunately some cats are unlucky enough to still get blocked anyways. Moose is one of the unlucky ones.

On Saturday 11/24, Moose started displaying symptoms that he was blocked (frequent trips to the litter box with nothing coming out, lethargy, blood drops left around the house, vomiting

, etc.) We brought him to the vet ER as soon as we noticed. Unfortunately we did not catch it in time, and he was already fully blocked, and the urine had already started spreading toxins into his kidney. The raised potassium levels weakened his heart, and put him at risk for cardiac arrest. This meant they had to keep him overnight to monitor his levels and keep him on fluids. That overnight stay alone was over $1,000. They told us he would require surgery, which is going to be a minimum of an additional $4,000 and include a very strict recovery process with lots of meds and observation.

My husband and I don't have any kids, Moose and our other pets are our children. And we would do absolutely anything to keep them healthy and happy, but that is putting some serious financial strain on us. We're working with the vet to set up a payment plan, but in order to get the surgery we need to put a 40% deposit down.

If you have the means, any amount (even just a couple dollars!) would mean the absolute world to our little family!! Like I said, we will be doing absolutely anything in our power to keep our little rascal healthy, but we need to lean on our community for some support during this period. If you can't donate, that's okay!! Even just sharing this fundraiser to your community would help so much. We will of course also take all the thoughts, prayers, and good vibes that you have to offer! Thank you so much for reading and for caring about our little boy <3